Abstract
Green spaces in cities are under pressure from increasing population, urbanization, and development, making governance of these common pool resources a complex and multi-dimensional process. Governance of urban green spaces can be improved by participatory approaches. However, many developing countries do not have the institutional structures and policies that promote the participation of a range of non-state actors, and green spaces are often removed from public access by regulatory slippage or elite capture for parks and gardens. This paper uses discourse analysis to explore the perspectives of the key stakeholders for public participation in the planning and management of green spaces in Lahore. The study employs Q-methodology to reveal four discourses: ‘Efficient Management’, ‘Anti/Pro-Administrative’, ‘Leadership and Capacity building’, and ‘Decentralization or Elite capture’. The most significant and dominant discourse of ‘Efficient Management’ shows stakeholders’ preferences towards developing new institutional arrangements at the local level through engaging citizens. The two discourses ‘Leadership and Capacity building’ and ‘decentralization or elite capture’ are also in favor of changing the power dynamics in the system at certain levels by using different strategies. However, the status quo-oriented administrative discourse serves as a barrier, resisting change at any level. The results of this study suggest a need for policy reforms to develop a conducive environment in which all the stakeholders can be engaged through different collaborative and co-management schemes, in order to achieve economically efficient, ecologically sustainable and socially equitable, urban green spaces in Lahore.
Highlights
Increasing urbanization and its associated land use changes have led to huge alterations in the way that people can access the natural resources within cities [1,2,3,4]
Factor B of the discourse of administrative rationality has one negative loader that belongs to the user category. This result shows stakeholders’ dissatisfaction with the government’s performance. It is different from the discourse of efficient management, as this participant thinks that people are not fully capable of participating in activities related to the management of urban green spaces
The study shows that all the stakeholders are ready to participate in the management and governance of urban green spaces
Summary
Increasing urbanization and its associated land use changes have led to huge alterations in the way that people can access the natural resources within cities [1,2,3,4]. Urban green spaces play a critical role in creating a livable city, with their social, economic and environmental benefits for the local population [5,6,7]. As a traditional public good, urban green spaces have always been characterized as non-rivalrous and non-excludable. As cities witness changes through the process of development, urban green spaces undergo some changes, affecting their public good nature: They are either privatized, or they become open access due to a lack of regulatory frameworks and mechanisms [10,11]
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